Ex-Microsoft Mobile Engineer Goes to Skype Competitor

Rebtel, the No. 2 VoIP company in the world behind Skype in terms of revenue, has named former Microsoft mobile engineer Daniel Forsman to its executive ranks.

The Stockholm, Sweden-based company announced Forsman's appointment to the position of vice president of product development on Thursday. In that role, he will be responsible for growing Rebtel's engineering team and supervising the company's R&D efforts, including product development and testing.

Forsman held a variety of senior development and program management positions during his 11 years at Microsoft before leaving in 2010. He participated in the development of several of Microsoft's mobile technologies, including Windows Live Mobile and MSN Mobile. Forsman also worked with ISVs and third-party providers as part of the Mobile Services Protocol partner program, which he was responsible for launching.

"I've always admired Rebtel from afar," Forsman said in a prepared statement. "Its growth rate is impressive; it has a loyal fan base and a fantastic brand."

Rebtel was founded in 2006 and claims 12 million users. Its flagship service is a client-less solution for making voice calls over any phone, mobile or otherwise, without the need for a PC or software download. In a separate e-mail, Forsman elaborated on what makes Rebtel's VoIP offering different from Skype, which Microsoft is in the process of acquiring, pending European regulatory approval.

"Rebtel is a lot more focused on consumers and mobiles since the overwhelming majority of users are strict mobile phone users," Forsman wrote. "However, there are many SMBs that are using Rebtel, due to the mobility and to save money since Rebtel can be up to 40 percent cheaper than Skype."

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Gladys Rama is the senior site producer for Redmondmag.com, RCPmag.com and MCPmag.com.